REVIVAL OF WOODEN SHIPBUILDING AS A WAR INDUSTRY. 39 



I have referred to principally — the 3,000 ton auxihary schooners — are of the five- 

 masted bald-headed type designed by Messrs. Cox & Stevens of Ncm^ York. They 

 are fitted with two triple-expansion steam engines and two water tube boilers, and 

 have given an average of about 10.5 knots on trials. There has been developed a 

 gang of nine riggers at one of these yards, which is turning out "one complete equip- 

 ment of standing rigging in about five days" and they challenge all comers to equal 

 or better their record. Plate 21 gives an idea of what this means. 



The work above mentioned is that of a new enterprise manned by men new in 

 the business, though under the leadership of some of the most capable and experi- 

 enced shipbuilders to guide them, and therefore deserving of every credit for turn- 

 ing out forty ships of the 3,000-ton class — ^a total of 120,000 tons deadweight — within 

 fourteen months from the laying of the first keel, as per present indications, an 

 average of "one every seven days." Details of these vessels, which would be of much 

 interest to the members, must of necessity be omitted "for the present, as the con- 

 tract under which they are being built has not as yet been completed. Plate 22 

 shows the general appearance of the completed vessel. 



DISCUSSION. 



The President : — We will now proceed to paper No. 3, entitled "Application of Buoy- 

 ancy Boxes to the S. S. Lucia for the United States Shipping Board," by Mr. W. T. Don- 

 nelly, Member. The copies of paper No. 3 have not arrived in sufficient number to be 

 distributed to the members, but Mr. Donnelly has several copies, and he will be glad to 

 furnish any one with a copy who desires it. 



Mr. Donnelly read the paper in abstract, and, in connection therewith, he said : — 

 "With regard to the application of these buoyancy boxes, if a ship is loaded with a cargo 

 of coal, almost a third of the space available in the hold will be found left above the coal. 

 This does not help to carry the coal, and if you put more coal in you will sink the ship. The 

 space above the coal does allow the water to come in if the ship is punctured and the ship 

 goes to the bottom. If the space is filled with dependable buoyancy boxes, the ship will not 

 go to the bottom. If the cargo is one of ore, iron or copper ore, it would perhaps not take 

 up more than a third of the space, and the rest of the space would be available for means 

 for preventing the ship from sinking. I will leave the mathematical statement, as the read- 

 ing of that would be rather dreary and apt to be burdensome." 



